Wine tasting is fun. It should be a great experience. You should be confident in what you are doing. So… let’s talk about tasting wine.
Tasting wine is about way more than putting the wine in your mouth.
To begin, look at the color. Consider how the color compares with other wines of this varietal that you have had. If it is a red wine, is it so dark that you cannot see through it when you hold the glass up to a light, or is it fairly easy to see through? Is it more purple, or brown?
Note: Wine tasters often perceive darker and more opaque wines as being of higher quality. This is not necessarily the case, but it is a common perception. Wineries are aware of this perception and will sometimes use a trick to “improve” the color of a wine. The trick is blending in a small amount of a highly pigmented wine. It is often not enough to make much of a difference in how a wine tastes, or smells, but it is enough to alter the appearance.
Lighter wines generally have less tannin. This means that they are less astringent. Astringency is that drying character that you get on your tongue and cheeks when sipping a wine.
So the appearance of a wine gives you an indication of the potential level of astringency., and body. A highly pigmented wine is probably more astringent, and more full bodied, but not always. There are ways a winemaker can adjust the level of astringency, and mouthfeel without having much of an impact on the color. So color is something to consider, but it is not a guarantee.
If the wine is more purple in color then it is a younger wine. If it is more ruby in color then it probably has some age. If you detect a brownish tint then the wine is probably pretty old, and might be oxidized. Oxidized wine has a sherry character and is considered a fault in wines other than sherries.
Now take your first smell of the wine. I like to do this before I swirl the glass. Think about what you smell. Now go ahead and give it a swirl and smell it again. Do you smell fruit? what kind of fruit? Is it cooked fruit, or fresh fruit? If it is fresh fruit is it dark fruit, or red fruit? If it is dark is it boysenberry, or blackberry, or currant, or some combination of all of them? Do you smell wood? Is it a raw wood smell, or a toasted smell? Do you smell vanilla, caramel, clove, or chocolate? These are all aromas that are usually derived from an oak influence.
Now taste the wine. What is the first thing that stands out? Do you taste the same fruit that you smelled? Is the wine astringent? What is the mouthfeel like? Is the wine balanced between the tartness and the sweetness? That is not to say that a wine is sweet, but the fruit character, and oak can contribute a perception of sweetness that can help balance out the sour and bitterness that red wines can have.
Once you swallow the wine what happens? Did you taste flavors throughout the sip? Did it feel like you tasted it when you first put it in your mouth, maybe there wasn’t much in the middle, but you tasted it again when you swallowed it? What is the finish like? The finish is what you taste, and the sensations you have in your mouth after you swallow the wine. It is the after effect. Does it linger? Can you taste the wine for a while? Or does it go away with the wine? Is there a burning sensation in your throat? That is generally an alcohol burn. It is the sensation that happens when you swallow a higher alcohol wine, or when you drink spirits. Is there a bitterness in the finish? This is similar to the taste that an aspirin leaves in your mouth if you don’t drink enough water with it.
I like to take a few sips and really consider all of this with each wine I am tasting. You may want to start keeping notes about the wines you taste. By taking time to think about what you smell and try to identify the aromas will help you build your wine vocabulary.